| Chapter
20 |
| 1 | The
LORD also spake unto Joshua, saying, |
|
2 | Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you
cities of refuge, whereof I spake unto you by the hand of Moses: |
| 3 | That the slayer that killeth any
person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither: and they shall be your refuge
from the avenger of blood. |
| 4 |
And when he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the
entering of the gate of the city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of
the elders of that city, they shall take him into the city unto them, and give
him a place, that he may dwell among them. |
| 5 | And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they
shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand; because he smote his neighbor
unwittingly, and hated him not beforetime. |
| 6 | And he shall dwell in that city, until he stand before
the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that
shall be in those days: then shall the slayer return, and come unto his own
city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled. |
| 7 | And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee
in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is
Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. |
|
8 | And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned
Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth
in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of
Manasseh. |
| 9 | These were
the cities appointed for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger that
sojourneth among them, that whosoever killeth any person at unawares might flee
thither, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before
the congregation. |
